


Coming Out

by OsoloNewsDay (TheOtherPerson)



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Closeted Character, Coming Out, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 05:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6458128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOtherPerson/pseuds/OsoloNewsDay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hope and Kelley decide that it is time to let the world know, through a press conference, that they are in committed loving relationship. First thing is first, telling their team and coaching staff about their decision. (Prompt: Debsof - O’Solo coming out to fans, please?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Out

Hope held her girlfriend’s hand. They were late for team breakfast, but they had a very good reason. They wanted everyone in the dining hall before they came down to share their big news. Later that week, the couple was planning to come out to the world. Many of their more dedicated fans had already guessed. Hope had had a brief marriage to Jerramy Stevens, but they been each other’s gay beards, which their managers had set up for them. Jerramy had decided he wanted to come out to the world forcing Hope into a divorce. They never loved each other or consummated the marriage so everything was pretty cut and dry. Unfortunately, it had led to more speculation on Hope and Kelley’s relationship. More people were starting to put the pieces together. At least when Hope’s nudes had been leaked when she was still married, the hackers hadn’t mentioned who the keeper had sent those pictures to or else the fans would have really known that O’Solo was real.

The dark haired keeper took a deep breath. She was ready to come out, but she was nervous. The team had been very supportive of their relationship, but would they still be supportive when the media coverage tripled putting everyone under a brighter spotlight? Ashlyn and Ali’s reactions were what she was worried about most. The couple had not yet come out to their fans, and with Hope and Kelley coming out, more speculation and questions would turn to them.

The couple walked through the doors. No one paid attention to them until Kelley whistled loudly calling for attention. The defender loved having all their teammates’ eyes on them and was practically buzzing with excitement. She was very eager to be able to kiss and hold her girlfriend in public. She was a very touchy feely person. It had been very hard on the younger woman to hold back anytime they weren’t alone or in front of the cameras.

The smaller girl turned to her girlfriend giving her the floor to speak. Hope swallowed against the lump that had formed in her throat. “Ummm...so as you all know Kelley and I have been dating for a while.” A couple of the newbies eyebrows raised in surprise.

Hope and Kelley didn't do PDA in front of the team and hadn't felt the need to tell every new national teammate the nature of their relationship. Only those that had been around when Hope went through her divorce knew that they were a couple. Sam and Steph, the more perceptive rookies, had asked them about it, and they hadn't denied that they were together.  If teammates asked, then they were open about it. The only teammates who were at breakfast that didn't know we're Jaelene and Mal.

Jaelene glared making her face look harsher as she tried to think of how she had missed it. Mal seemed pleased having already thought there was something going on between her teammates. Hope smiled back at the girl nodding when she received a thumbs up from their youngest teammate. “We've thought about this for awhile, and we think it is the best time before the media starts going crazy on the Olympics for us to come out as a couple.”

She waited; no one said anything and their facial expressions didn't give anything away. Finally, Tobin broke the silence. “Weren’t you out already?”

Kelley looked around the room and finally let out a laugh realizing her team was serious. Hope did not think it was so funny. She had been hoping for at least a little shock and maybe a hearty congratulation, but this was incredibly underwhelming. Her face took on a glare, but her girlfriend squeezed her hand making her adjust her face to a forced smile. “No, we weren’t out.”

All at once the team broke into smiles especially Tobin whose face was now consumed by her grin. “Got you,” Tobs said laughing so hard her hand knocked over her water sending it over the table saturating anything in its path including several of the girls’ clothes.

Kelley and Hope were stunned. Normally, Kelley was the one that surprised her teammates pretending like no one remembered their birthday and then making a big deal. Kelley couldn’t be happier to be on this side of the surprise. “What...how did you guys know?”

Pinoe raised her hand guiltily. “I couldn’t help sharing the happy news.” Kelley had told her blonde best friend the previous night. The older woman had jumped up and down for twenty minutes before she finally calmed down enough to let out a squeal and hug her friend in congratulations. “You know I can’t keep a secret.”

The brunette keeper turned to her girlfriend groaning. She wasn’t really upset that their surprise had already been ruined, but she wished Kelley wouldn’t have shared their news with the one woman on the team with the biggest mouth. She loved Megan; she really did, but the girl was nuts. “Did you have to tell Pinoe?”

“She’s my best friend,” Kelley said shrugging before high-fiving the shorthaired blonde. The couple separated, the Squirrel being pulled away by Pinoe to sit with some of the younger girls. Megan wanted to be there when her friend shared the specifics of her relationship with Mal and Jaelene. She loved when rookies found out that two of the most well known players were in fact gay. Pinoe thought it was hilarious.

Hope went and sat down next to Carli stealing some grapes from her plate. “Why didn’t you tell me?” The midfielder asked. She had helped the keeper from the beginning with her relationship. Every fight the older woman had with Kelley sent her to Carli’s room to bemoan her fate before being forcibly shoved out the door usually to go apologize to her girlfriend.

The keeper sighed. She had not been looking forward to this part. “Carls, you know you’re my best friend, but I couldn’t think of a way to tell you. I tried so many times, but the words wouldn’t come out. Please don’t be mad about this.” Hope rarely opened up to anyone including her best friend and never admitted she was wrong to anyone that wasn’t Kelley. It was obvious that the older woman meant her words.

Carli nodded. “Ok. I get it. But when you decide to ask Kelley to marry you, I better be the first to know.” Honestly, the midfielder saw her friends getting engaged within the next year. It was obvious the couple was meant to be together. Hope thought marriage was more important than her girlfriend did. It was one of the reasons that she would probably be the one to purpose. The defender was happy to just be girlfriends, but said she would marry Hope if it were important to her. The wedding would be glorious. Carli had been secretly planning her friends’ wedding for months now. It's not like she went out of her way, but she was planning her own nuptials and when she came across a dress that would look good on Hope she took a picture and kept it in a growing folder she started several months ago.

Ashlyn and Ali both came up to the couple individually expressing their support and congratulations. They weren’t ready to come out to the world, but they would be soon. Having their friends come out was perfect. They could see how the media and world react before having to go through it themselves.

Breakfast and the rest of the day went by fast. Almost too fast seeing how before dinner they had a meeting with Jill and the rest of the coaching staff. Kelley was nervous for this one. The head coach intimidated her a little; unlike Hope, who couldn’t care less what the staff had to say about their relationship. The keeper cared more about having their teammates’ support than whatever Coach Ellis and Dawn had to say. She was dead set on having the press conference now whether they supported it or not. The defender wanted their support. She didn’t want to upset Jill, who was almost like a second mother to her at this point.

“Let me put you guys at ease,” Ellis said sitting at the head of the meeting table looking back and forth between the girls. Only her and Dawn were there. Everyone else was surprisingly absent. “I didn’t invite anyone else because I’ve already told them. Pinoe came to me after breakfast and clued me in on what you guys might be planning. She said you were nervous, Kelley.” The British woman looked at the squirming defender smiling. Hope hadn’t told her girlfriend, but she had asked the blonde midfielder to give their coach the heads up. She thought it would be easier on Kelley than having to tell Jill themselves.

Ellis continued, “I don’t know why you’d be nervous. I’m a pussycat, right Dawn?” The other woman scoffed. Jill was anything, but a pussycat. She was more like a cougar (pun intended).

The British woman rolled her eyes at her longtime friend’s reaction. “Anyway, the coaching staff is behind you one hundred percent. I’m sure you’ve thought about this already, but we want to go through a mock press conference with you. Dawn and I both have some experience with the media digging into our personal lives. We’re going to throw some questions at you, and I want you to take this seriously. Reporters can be vicious.”

The two coaches went back and forth throwing both awkward and rather rude questions at the couple. Hope only cussed them out twice, and Kelley’s face was permanently red from embarrassment. Jill and Dawn wouldn’t admit it, but it was fun asking these very personal questions to the two women making them squirm uncomfortably. They didn’t want answers; they just wanted to prepare them for what people might ask. The team didn’t need the keeper blowing up at the media every time someone asked her a salacious question about her relationship.

Dawn’s favorite had been when Jill had asked them in her fake reporter voice, “Who is the man in the relationship?” They both knew this was a common question for women in lesbian relationships, and, no matter how much they hated it, they had to ask just to prepare them for the question. It had taken five minutes to get Hope to stop cussing them out. The keeper had a temper, whereas Kelley thought all of this was ridiculously funny. As soon as the question was out of her coach’s mouth, she was replying ‘Hope’, much to everyone but the keeper’s delight.

By the end of the questioning, Jill and Dawn were satisfied that the couple was indeed ready for whatever the media could throw at them. It was obvious that they were in love, and if they could continue to learn and grow together then they would be just fine. The head coach felt honored to be able to witness the interaction of the two. The love that radiated of the two women was magical making her homesick for her own wife.

* * *

 

**Two Days Later**

Hope had her game face on as she faced the reporters, and it was also one of the only times Kelley didn’t have a smile on her face. The media had gathered for their news conference. No one had tipped them off what this was about. They all sat eagerly waiting for whatever the two USWNT players had to say. Hope began, “We have called you all here today because we obviously have something to share.”

The keeper looked at the younger woman receiving a nod and a squeeze to her leg she continued with their message to the media. “Kelley and I have decided to make our relationship public knowledge.” As soon as the words were out, the reporters went into a frenzy shouting out questions. Hope glared at them raising her hands for silence. It took several minutes before the conference room finally calmed down. “To answer some of your questions, yes we were dating during my marriage to Jeremy. As many people have already guessed the marriage was a shame. We were never together physically. Both Jeremy and I were not interested in each other in the slightest. Our managers thought it would be a good publicity stunt to hide our true relationships.”

Kelley touched her girlfriend’s arm letting her know she would like to speak. Hope stopped giving the floor over to the smaller woman. “Our teammates have all been very supportive as well as the coaching staff. Many of them have been encouraging us to come out for a while. We will be taking three questions before ending this briefing.”

The noise in the room was deafening as people started to yell things out, but Hope once again took control pointing to a man with his hand raised in the front row. He stood up and eventually the room became quiet again letting him speak. “Ummm...yes. Harold Munts from the New York Daily. How long have you two been together and why have you decided now to come out?”

Hope looked at Kelley and the younger woman nodded taking on the question herself. “We’ve been dating since my second year with the national team. That would be a little over four years. We’ve thought about coming out many times, but it just didn’t feel right. Now with the World Cup coming up and then the Olympics, we wanted to get this out in the open. The media will be prying into all our lives more and more as we get closer to those events. We wanted to come out on our terms instead of on someone else's.”

The keeper nodded her head. It was everything she would have wanted to say and more. The girl was great with reporters. Even better than Hope most of the time. The media annoyed the older woman. She felt like they were too noisy especially after her nude leaks. She let Kelley pick the next person to ask a question. A chubby woman near the back got the honor. “Heather Fields, LA Times, are you planning to get married?”

The defender chuckled turning to her girlfriend letting her answer the question. Hope fought a blush off her cheeks. “Not at this time. Although, we are keeping it open as an option for the future.” She was always short with her statements only giving them the minimum amount of information. “Last question guys, make it count.”

The couple selected a shorter teenage girl on the right. She stood up, “Louis Knocks, Soccer Fans Online, are you worried about how your fans will react?” She had hit the nail right on the head. The couple was indeed worried about the fans. They loved how much the fans supported them, but they were worried how they would be treated after coming out.

Kelley took the question. “We are worried, but it won’t change anything. We are both great soccer players, and our coaches know this. So even if we get backlash, it won’t affect our position on the team. We will be sad if people don’t understand the love we have for each other, but it won’t change how we feel for one another.” The duo stood after that waving to the crowd and exiting the room. The reports were already streaming in through social media.

For the next week, the couple received more love and support from their fans than ever before. They never would have guessed that coming-out as a lesbian couple would make them more famous than even Abby Wambach. It was as humbling as it was heart warming. Any hate they received was quickly overshadowed in the wave of support. Even Jaelene came around saying how happy she was for the two. Kelley and Hope couldn’t be happier. Their life was so much better now that they could be open with their love. Everything was perfect, and maybe one day they’d even become each other's wives.

* * *

 

**Prompt Master list** [ **Here** ](http://osolonewsday.tumblr.com/prompts) **and prompt submission** [ **here** ](http://osolonewsday.tumblr.com/ask) **.**

  
  
  



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